By Rupert H
The UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) came alive in 1950, on December 14 by the United Nations Assembly. The agency's primary goal is to co-ordinate international action in protecting refugees and resolving refugee problems across the globe. For more than sixty years, they assisted millions of people begin their lives all over again, and today there are more than 7,190 staff in over 120 countries and continue to assist more than 36.4 million displaced individuals.
The UNHCR safety net
It is every government's goal to guarantee basic human rights and security for each of its citizens. However, after people become refugees, this safety net is no longer available to them. Often times when people are fleeing war and or persecution, they are very vulnerable. Since the state in no longer able to protect them, or is the one that is persecuting them, they get the help required from UNHCR. In some instances, even other countries are unwilling to let them in, condemning them to intolerable circumstances in terms of their security human rights and in some cases, their lives are in danger.
UNHCR has the mandate to protect more than 3.5 million stateless people. It does this in a number of ways, and guarantees their basic human rights. On the long term, the agency strives to ensure that each person exercises their right to seek asylum within another country or state, and have the option to return home voluntarily, resettle in a third country or integrate locally. On the long term, the organization assists refugees find suitable and durable solutions to their plight, by repatriating them voluntarily to their homeland, integrating the in asylum countries or resettling in other countries.
Their staffs work along other partners in different locations, which range from cities to other border areas and remote camps. They attempt as much as possible to provide physical and legal protection, minimizing sexual and physical violence, which many refuges are subject to even in asylum countries. At the minimum, they seek to provide water shelter and medical care immediately after an aftermath of exodus, while considering the particular needs of the elderly, the disabled, women, and children.
Offering a helping hand
When people flee their homes and seek safety elsewhere, they require help consistently. Considering that they have left their homes along with their resources, basically, most of them flee with the clothes on their backs. The UNHCR offers them the vital help they require, lifesaving emergency assistance in the form of sleeping mats and blankets, sanitation health care, water, water containers, household goods, and where possible food. The other vital assistance they require is registration as refugees, counseling education and asylum application.
On the other hand, they also offer those who return home assistance by road, sea, and air, along with some packages to help them begin their lives all over again. This agency also offers reintegration or local integration programs, infrastructure restoration, income generating projects along with other help that the returnees require.
Taking care of the environment
When a large group of people arrives in an area, this is bound to put a lot of pressure on the land and the local environment at large. In addition, the displaced persons have to rely on the immediate environment for basic survival. At times they have to cut trees to create shelters, collect firewood to prepare meals and warm themselves, they kill wild animals for food and gather other plants and herbs for food and medication. When this trend is not controlled, it will definitely have a negative impact on the environment. Unless somebody controls these activities, they can quickly get out of hand, have a negative impact on the environment as well as the displaced, and host populations. To avoid further conflict arising from competition for resources, they have a range of projects that they use to reduce and overcome the damage resulting from human activity. They also respond to climate change and other emerging threats.
0 comments:
Post a Comment